The Further Adventures of a London Call Boy
by whatifimnotthehero
Summary: Sequel to Diary of a London Call Boy! AU Snarry fic. Harry and Severus are learning to cope under the thumb of Rita Skeeter.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter or Call Girl.**

**(Just a note this is a sequel to my other story Diary of a London Call Boy, and you can find it under my stories.)**

"How long?"

"What?" Harry asked taken off guard by the lady on the bench at the bus stop.

"How long have you had that broken heart?" She asked kindly.

"Three months," he said after a moment.

In fact today marked three months since he had left Severus. Three months of tell himself that the'd done the right thing. Three months of trying to let himself dissolve into the anonymity that London was so keen to offer.

"Still very fresh then. You're wondering how I know?" She asked and he nodded. "Sweetheart, heartbreak is almost always worn on the sleeve."

He was honestly surprised that he had managed to get out of bed that morning. Those first few weeks had been some of the hardest of his entire life. His willpower had been so weak and Severus called him nearly everyday, until he couldn't take it anymore. One day out of sheer panic he had thrown his phone off of the Millennium Bridge and let it sink in the water below. Severus hadn't called again, he wasn't able to.

"Yeah, I suppose," he replied very noncommittally.

"Don't worry it may take some time, and it might not feel like it now, but it does in fact get better," she smiled kindly.

"Uh, thanks," he smiled weakly and got onto his bus.

Does it get better? It surely didn't feel that way. Everyday felt like the end of the world, and he carried the weight of it in the pit of his stomach. It ripped away his appetite and will to get out of bed in the morning. He looked like shit and he knew it. Every morning when he made himself look at himself in the mirror he could see how empty his eyes looked. The dark circles under them the paleness of his skin, the weight he had lost was becoming more evident everyday.

He sat down on one of the bus seats and his phone lit up with a call from Mrs. Weasley, and he routinely sent it to voicemail. She called to check up on him at least once a week, but he had learned to isolate himself in the past three months. Not seeing anyone who had obvious ties to Severus. Draco had tried hard in the beginning, but finally got the hint and Harry assumed he had put the energy into having a relationship with Neville. Ron and Hermione were back in school, so he could avoid them with little to no effort. The only time he willingly, if not begrudgingly, made himself known was once a month at dinner at The Burrow. It was the only way to get everyone off of his back the rest of the time.

Mrs. Weasley had been brilliant about the entire thing, holding off on her usual overbearing self to tell him that relationships come and go, and that if things were meant to sort themselves out that they would. He didn't know why but he found comfort in her words. That maybe she was right and that things would begin to sort themselves out. He hoped that they decided to get a move on sooner rather than later.

No one knew exactly what had happened, or why it had ended. And eventually they stopped asking. What was he meant to tell them? He wanted it to come across as a mutual decision, because he didn't know if he could bare to hear one person call the man a 'wanker.'

He climbed off the bus and walked the short distance from the stop to his flat. He climbed the stairs of the small flat he had found in the city and shut the door behind him, promptly shutting out the rest of the world behind him. He rarely left the small flat, but today was one of the days he had to drag himself out of bed to go and meet with the tutor he had hired to help him study to earn the proper exam results to go to university. It was mostly done in an effort to keep himself busy, and to make himself go out twice a week. It was too easy to stay indoors now, especially when you were sitting on top of an inheritance from your parents. There was no need to work, and he could order groceries and have them delivered to his door.

He walked through to the small kitchen and put the kettle on, and dropped his bag into one of the empty chairs at the small table. His flat had been a mess since the day he had moved in, he never bothered to put away any of his clothes, and instead opted to toss them onto the bed in the small bedroom that he never used. If he weren't too embarrassed, he would have hired someone to pick up his laundry too, but alas there was another excuse to go out on Sundays.

Harry waded through the disorganized mess that was the sitting room and shrugged off his jumper and tossed it onto the couch. He picked up the black shirt that hung over the back of the large chair he slept in most nights and pulled it on. It was the only thing of Severus' that he had, and he wasn't even sure that how he had managed to have it. It must have been an accident when he had packed in a hurry the he had left. It used to smell strongly of the man, but now it smelled more of Harry than Severus. It was his security blanket, and it held him now that Severus couldn't. It was like his own personal extension of the man.

He pushed open one of the windows as the kettle sounded and he went to make himself a cup of tea. He carried his cup over to the window and sat down on the crate under the windowsill and had a quiet smoke. This was how he spent most afternoons that he wasn't too busy crying away: smoking and drinking tea. He liked to watch the city move and work around him as though he didn't exist, sometimes he wished that it would swallow him up, and it would be as though he had never existed to begin with. Not existing at all had to be a better alternative than the way that things felt right now. It hurt more than he imagined anything could ever hurt, even if Severus had died he imagined that it might be less painful than this. At least then it wouldn't be like Rita Skeeter was dangling the man on a string just out of his reach. He wouldn't have to worry about how the man's day had gone, or if he missed Harry as much as Harry missed him.

Since leaving Severus some weeks and days were harder than others and Harry could feel it in the pit of his stomach that this was going to be an extremely difficult week. This week not only marked three months since he'd left Severus, but it would have also been their 10 month anniversary. He sighed heavily and put his cigarette out in the ashtray and went to run himself a bath. He had to keep himself occupied as much as possible, or this week would eat him alive, he could feel it.

When he woke up Friday, he was meant to go to a tutoring session, but he couldn't bare to get up and get dressed. He sent a text to Joe his tutor and told him he wouldn't be able to make it, but he'd still pay him for his time. He burrowed down into the plush duvet and continued his wallowing session. Today was their anniversary and as if to mock him the sun was actually shining and he could have sworn he heard a bird chirping outside his window. He wanted today to be over more than he had probably every wanted anything else, other than to be back with Severus.

Sometime in the afternoon his doorbell buzzed and he assumed it was the kid that delivered his groceries and went to open the door. He was past the point of caring about his appearance and padded across the flat wrapped in his blanket to open the door. When he pulled the door open, everything went black at the sight of what was on the other side, and he toppled to the floor.

He woke up confused and disoriented on the couch. He pushed himself up and thought that maybe he was dreaming, because there in his kitchen was Severus Snape. The man had his back to him and was busy what looked like cooking. Harry looked around the rest of the flat and noticed that everything had been tidied and put away. What was going on? How had the man found him? He had done his very best to stay out of anyone's line of attention, but here he was standing in Harry's flat.

"Is this a dream?" Harry asked after a moment and Severus spun around to look at him.

"No, this is very, very real," he said crossing the space between them with long strides and placing a desperate kiss on Harry's lips.

"What're you doing here?"

"I was so worried. I couldn't stay away any longer. Your number was disconnected and Mrs. Weasley said you weren't doing very well," Severus explained.

"I threw my phone into the Thames," Harry shrugged apologetically. "Why have you been talking to Mrs. Weasley?"

"I was worried about you, and rightly so," the man said gesturing to the now tidy flat.

"You're not meant to be here," Harry said desperately. "We can't be together, if she finds out she'll wreck everything."

"Do not worry about Rita Skeeter," Severus spat her name. "I've spent the past three months digging up the necessary information about who her and her contacts are. Money speaks volumes to people like that."

"She still has the power to ruin you," Harry said pushing him away. "You can't be here, it's not fair. You can't just give me this hope. What if it doesn't work? What then?"

"Harry, it's already working," Severus said caressing the side of his face and Harry looked at him confused.

Severus went on to explain that he had been picking off Rita's contacts one at a time, she had been very sloppy with covering her tracks. He had hired some of the best private investigators that money could buy and they were busy finding her contacts and gathering information on her. They were close to find the information necessary to put her away for a very long time. On the other hand Severus had been covering his and Lucius' tracks from their youth. How he had depleted half of his family's fortune, but he didn't care what it would take, that he was going to fix this, and he just need Harry to be patient with him.

"You have to start taking care of yourself," Severus said looking at him painfully. "You have to eat. You have to get out of bed in the morning."

"It's not been so easy," Harry said his voice wavering. "You've been working toward this the whole time and I've been thinking I'd never see you again."

"Hush now, and come and eat, I've made you dinner for our anniversary. I brought you flowers and chocolates and wine," Severus said kissing him softly.

"I'm afraid this is some kind of terrible dream," Harry said quietly. "That I'll wake up tomorrow and none of this will have happened."

"It's not a dream, come and have a shower, the food will keep warm," Severus said pulling him up onto his feet and leading him into the small loo.

The man turned on the shower and checked the water and helped Harry undress. He smiled fondly when he saw that Harry was wearing one of his shirts, he folding it in half and gently hung it on the towel rack and put the rest of his clothes in the hamper. He put Harry into the shower and closed the curtain.

"I want you to stay," Harry said as Severus headed for the door.

"I'll stay, I'm just going to find something for you to wear," the man conceded.

By the time Severus had come back bearing clothes Harry had finished with his shower and was climbing out. The man helped him dress and led him back into the small kitchen and sat him at the table. He cleared the textbooks from the table and chair and looked at Harry questioningly.

"I'm studying to resit my exams," he shrugged.

"That's really smart of you," Severus smiled lightly at him.

"I still can't believe this is real," Harry said after a moment.

"Trust me, this is very real. As real as that shirt you're wearing," Severus said gesturing to his warn shirt and Harry sort of smiled.

Harry and Severus had a quiet dinner together, but Harry was so used to not eating he could only finish around half of his plate. Severus looked saddened by the state of him and made him promise to start eating regularly. Severus put the dishes in the sink and led Harry away from the kitchen and down the hall to the bedroom. Harry inhaled deeply at how Severus had made quick work of the bedroom and had even managed to find the bedding to make the bed. He led Harry into the room and kissed him softly again.

He slowly slid the shirt off of Harry's shoulder and placed kisses down his jawline, before pulling his t-shirt over his head and tossing it on the floor. Harry looked at him wide eyed and slid backwards onto the bed. Severus climbed onto the bed, toeing his shoes off and pushed Harry back onto the mattress and kissed him again. He kissed his way down Harry's neck and onto his chest causing Harry to inhale sharply when his mouth made contact with his nipple, lick and sucking.

Harry's fingers fumbled to unbutton Severus' shirt and pull it down off of his shoulders, and then pulled the man's under shirt off as well. His fingers ghosted over the man's muscled chest, and he pulled the man up into another kiss. Harry could feel how hard he was through his pants and ran his hand over Severus's crotch, palming him softly. Severus on the other hand made quick work of Harry's pants and boxer's and had him naked in no time. His dark eyes drank in the site of Harry naked in front of him greedily. He kissed his way down Harry's chest and stomach, to his waist and then finally he took Harry's hard cock into his mouth and set his aptly talented tongue to work. He moaned loudly and clutched the sheets into his hands, his hips bucking up off of the mattress.

"Severus, please," he breathed.

Severus stops his assault and comes up and gazes down with hooded lids at Harry. He makes quick work of his own pants and soon they're both naked and aroused.

He slowly crawled up and kisses up Harry's stomach and chest and finally makes contact with his lips. Severus pulls back from the kiss and slowly pushes Harry's leg's apart and moves so that he's overtop of him. He slowly starts to prepare Harry slipping his lubed fingers into Harry stretching and preparing him. Harry closed his eyes and groaned softly at the contact. When he had finished he slowly sank into Harry, giving him a moment to adjust.

Harry let out a moan of pleasure and pushed his hips up instinctively. Severus slowly starts to move, easing in and out of Harry. Finding his rhythm he starts to quicken his pace. He then reached down and took Harry's cock in his hand and started working it in tune to his rhythm. Harry could feel the orgasm building deep in the pit of his stomach. He wouldn't last much longer and Severus kept thrusting into him.

"Come on Harry, cum for me," he whispered seductively into Harry's ear.

Severus' words are his undoing and he came, his body splintering into a million little pieces, Severus came a few seconds later, collapsing on top of him.

"I love you so very much," Severus said breathlessly.

"I love you too," Harry said fighting to hold back a well of tears.

" Don't cry," Severus said pulling him close to his chest.

Harry woke some time in the middle of the night with Severus' arms around him and silently pleaded to whatever gods there were not to let this be a dream.

**A/N: I hope y'all like it! Please leave a review!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Diary of a Call Girl. **

When Harry woke up the next morning he nearly fell off the edge of the bed when he felt someone beside of him, but the events of the night before quickly came flooding back to him. It was still early, and the morning light was just starting to break through the windows. He snuggled up close to Severus and nuzzled his face into the man's chest and inhaled his scent. He never wanted the man to leave again, but he knew that it was inevitable, that when Severus woke up, they'd have to go back to pretending that they weren't together anymore. That last night had never happened.

"You need a haircut," Severus said into the top of his head.

"I know," Harry said quietly.

"I'm going to sort this out," Severus said after a moment. "I'm going to fix this."

"I know. Can we just have a few moments together without talking about any of it?" Harry murmured. "Who knows when I will get to lay with you like this again. I know you're about to run out the door any moment now."

"Hold on," Severus said leaning over the edge of his bed where his pants lay and fishing something out of his pocket. "Here." he said and slid Harry's ring back on his finger.

"Severus don't" Harry said quietly.

"Don't what?" 

"Don't give me false hope," Harry said quietly.

"There's nothing false about it."

He and Severus finally pulled themselves away from the bed and showered together. After a lot of heavy petting they finally managed to get clean and to get out. Harry sat on the edge of his bed and watched the man get dressed. Severus was about to pull on his button up shirt when he pulled it back off and handed it to Harry.

"The other one is a little worse for wear."

"Thank you," Harry smiled at him.

"You don't smile like you used to," he said sadly.

"I know," Harry shrugged.

"I want to give you a reason to smile again," Severus said leaning down and placing a soft kiss on his lips.

Severus practically had to pry Harry off of him when he went to go. They must have told each other they loved the other at least 10 times before the man was finally gone. Harry locked the door and went to his favorite chair and buried himself under the duvet and fell asleep there. He didn't want to face the day now that Severus had gone.

He still wasn't sure what they were meant to do about Rita Skeeter. Gathering information was all well and fine, but she also had information. He didn't see anything other than a standoff happening, and what would lead to all three of them's eventual downfall. They needed to discredit her, and she might have quite a paper trail, but Severus as a stupid 17 year old boy had murdered another human being. There was little to nothing that could top that. Severus had told him so much and so little at the same time. He needed more information, he needed to be able to help, he needed to get rid of this bitch once and for all.

He woke a few hours later to someone knocking on his door, he rolled off the chair and sleepily went to open the door. He pulled the door open and Mrs. Weasley bustled in past him carrying bags of food and started putting it away.

"Mrs. Weasley? What're you doing here?" He asked running a hand through his messy hair.

"Severus called, dear. Said you could do with some home cooked meals and a haircut," she smiled lovingly.

"What? I'm not a child," he protested.

"No one said you would dear. He's just worried about you, and sometimes we all need a little help," she said kindly. "We all know you've been having a hard time lately."

"Well a broken heart and all that," Harry muttered.

"It happens to us all at some point, dear. Severus calling was just the excuse I needed to come see how you were doing," she smiled again. "I don't know what happened with the pair of you, but he is worried about you."

"Yeah," Harry blushed.

"Three months is long enough to mope. You've gotta get back out there and make the world work for you. Relationships are only part of it, dear," she said patting him on the arm. "So shall I cut your hair, or would you like to go out and do it?"

"Mrs. Weasley, you don't have to do all of this," Harry sighed.

"If I didn't want to do it, I wouldn't be here," she said brightly. "Now, about that mop on your head."

"Uh, I guess you can do it," he shrugged.

"Wonderful," she said pulling scissors and hair clippers out of her handbag.

Mrs. Weasley cut his hair and sent him to have a shower while she cooked him up some meals for the week. He had to admit having her in the flat seemed to brighten the place up. She popped around the place tidying behind what Severus had done. He watched her take the flowers that Severus had brought him and sit them in small vases all around the flat. Harry didn't know where the vases came from, but he had to admit it did do wonders for the place. She opened the blinds on all the windows to let the light of the day in. She left her mother's touch on his flat, and he had to say that he was grateful.

"No more wallowing in this chair," she said pointedly and took the pillows and duvet into his small bedroom. "You have a bed young man, so sleep in it." 

"Yes, mam."

She cooked him lunch and dinner for the entire week and put it all into tupperware containers that were labeled with what it was and what meal it was for. When she had finished cooking all the meals she cooked lunch for him and made him sit and eat it. She told him he had better clean the plate, while she bustled around the kitchen putting away the rest of the food and cleaning up the dishes.

"Sometimes we all need a little help from the ones that love us," she said embracing him before he walked her downstairs.

"Thank you," Harry said opening the cab door for her and handing the driver enough money to cover her fare home.

"Anytime dear."

He headed back upstairs and looked over the transformation that his flat had taken over the past few days. It was nice to know that people cared for him, but he also felt guilty that he had let himself get into such a state to begin with.

People kept telling him that broken hearts and break ups were just a part of life, but this wasn't a separation of two willing people. Things might have been easier if it had been. No, Rita Skeeter wanted to cause damage, she wanted to hit them where it hurt the most, and she had succeeded. She was clearly insane. Wouldn't any sane person holding a blackmail over two people's heads surely ask for a large sum of money. No this wasn't done for personal gain, this was done with the intent to leave a huge wound in both of their lives. It wasn't hard to know that this was the first public relationship that Severus, the man who had no patience for anyone, had. It didn't help that he happened to choose someone like Harry who also happened to be a high end escort. He needed to know what had set off this chain of events, there was a bigger picture that she hadn't revealed and that he couldn't see.

Harry wasn't going to let this go. Seeing Severus and spending that short time with him had woken up something up inside of him. He couldn't let her get away with this any longer.

He pulled out his small computer and set to work on doing his own research on the mad reporter. He typed her name into the search engine and the first page alone were high profile stories that she had written. She was clearly one of the leading investigative journalists in the country, and the common thread that ran through all of her stories were that they had massive impacts on anyone who was involved. There were a few smaller stories that were related to some of the headliners, she didn't tend to worry too much about the loose ends, she wanted the bigger picture. She didn't seem to care who she took down, or who was in the way as long as that meant that she got the scoop that she was after. This also probably meant that she was on more than a few people's bad side.

Harry just needed to know where he and Severus stood in regards to her bigger picture. It looked to him as if they were just a road bump on her map. They had gotten in the way in some way and she was going to take them out if necessary to get what she wanted. This must be a huge story for her to go to the lengths that she had to pull them apart. He couldn't quite put his finger on everything that was going on and decided that if anyone could it would be Hermione.

He emailed her and asked if she and Ron could make it to London for the weekend, and that he would pay for them to come, or that he would come to them. This meant he would more than likely have to reveal his past as an escort to Ron, and the trust fund would have to come out. He just hoped that the red head wasn't selfish for once in his life and agreed to help. He needed all the help he could get, and it was past time that he reconciled with Draco, and apologized for blowing him off.

Hermione emailed back quickly and told him that they were too busy to come to London for the weekend, but they would love to have him.

Now he had to work on Draco. The blonde loved drama, but did he love it enough to accept an apology from Harry who had been a total prat for the past three months. Maybe. Maybe if Harry explained the situation, and what was going on then Draco would be willing to overlook everything.

He decided that telling Severus would be too risky at the moment, and he wasn't sure if he actually had something or was only grasping at straws. For now he would leave the man out of his plans, and fill him in when things were more tangible.

By Wednesday, he had finally managed to bring himself to face Draco. He caught a cab to the blonde's house and had to resist the urge to go a few streets over to where he knew Severus' house, his home was. He stood on the doorstep for ages, debating on whether or not he should really knock, and eventually a member of the house staff pulled the door open to inquire if he could help him with anything.

"Uh, I was hoping to see Draco," Harry murmured.

"Mr. Malfoy has strict instructions that he is not to be disturbed," the man said smugly.

"Well tell him it's Harry," he said quickly.

"Mr. Malfoy wishes to not be disturbed..."

"I heard you the first time you great prat! I told you to tell it's Harry!" Harry scowled cutting the man off.

"Harry who?" The man inquired.

"You've got to be kidding me. Potter. Harry Potter," he sighed.

"One moment," the man said and closed the door and left Harry standing on the doorstep.

Harry stood looking around anxiously when the door was ripped open and there stood the whirlwind that was Draco Malfoy. Harry offered a small smile under Draco's skeptical look, and noticed Neville lingering over Draco's shoulder. Neither of them spoke, they stood there in silence as Draco looked him over.

"You look like shit," Draco said after a moment.

"I haven't had you around to keep me in line," Harry shrugged.

"Whose mum cut your hair?" Draco asked arching an eyebrow.

"Ron's mum," Harry smiled lightly.

"So you blow me off for months and now you're here. What's changed then?" Draco asked skeptically.

"I'm sorry. I was...still am going through a lot."

"Isn't that what friends are for? I can understand blowing off the other lot, but me?" Draco said inspecting his nails.

"I"m sorry. I was a gigantic prat and I'll never do it again. You're so superior to me or something like that," Harry tried.

"You're apology is almost as bad as your haircut," Draco laughed.

"I need you help," Harry said after a moment.

"Well, you better come in then," Draco said stepping aside.

**A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter is a bit rough, it was difficult to get the transition to sit right for some reason. Anyways, thank's for reading and reviewing!**


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Call Girl. **

Draco had suggested that they leave Thursday night rather than to wait until Friday evening. He said this was a big problem and needed all the attention that it could get and sent Harry home saying he would sort travel and would pick him up tomorrow afternoon.

Harry went home and started to throw clothes into an old duffle bag that he managed to dig out of the bottom of his closet. Suddenly he was really grateful that Severus had put all of his clothes away for him. He was busy folding t-shirts and stuffing them into the bag when he looked up to see Severus standing in the doorway. He nearly jumped out of his skin at the sight of the man.

"You really should keep your door locked," Severus scowled at him.

"And you should knock," Harry murmured. "Besides, I forgot. So sue me."

"Going somewhere?" Severus asked eyeing the bag of clothes.

"Um, yeah, going to see Ron and Hermione. Thought it might be good to get away from London for awhile," he half lied.

"Good to get away from me?" Severus teased.

"No, of course not," Harry grinned.

"So what will you lot be up to then?"

"Dunno really," Harry shrugged.

"Be careful and have fun," Severus said drawing him close and kissing him.

"I will," Harry promised. It took a lot not to just spill the beans there. He just hoped that Severus wouldn't realize that Draco had gone missing as well.

"I've got something for you," Severus said causally.

"Yeah, what's that?" Harry smiled, but his smile faltered when a large burly man stepped into the doorway. "Who is that?"

"This is Seamus and Seamus is going to be your bodyguard of sorts," Severus said. "He's highly trained and one of the best in his field."

"What do I need a bodyguard for?" Harry asked confused.

"Incase Skeeter tries anything," Severus said annoyed that Harry didn't think of it first.

"Well I'm not having him following me around," Harry said offended. "I can take care of myself, I've been doing it my entire life."

"He's to keep you safe. If anything ever happened to you I don't know what I'd do."

"Yeah, well I'm going to jump out of my sitting room window if he's following me around everywhere I go! No offense, Seamus," Harry said pointedly and the man nodded.

"I'll delay his start until you return from your trip, but I really do want you to agree to let him do his work," Severus said seriously.

"We'll talk about this when I get back, yeah? Can you send him away now or something?" Harry asked crossing his arms.

"Well, actually we'll both be going. I'm late for a dinner meeting," Severus said checking his watch.

"Have a good time then, yeah?" Harry said kissing him goodbye.

"I'll call you later," Severus promised lightly and Harry nodded.

When Severus had gone Harry rushed to the window to make sure the mountain that was Seamus had gotten into the car with the man. Satisfied that the man wouldn't be lurking around, he locked his door and set to tuck into one of the meals that Mrs. Weasley had made for him. As he ate, he angrily stewed about the fact that Severus wanted to issue him a glorified babysitter. He didn't care what threat that Rita Skeeter might pose, it didn't warrant a bodyguard. Severus was going overboard, and it was cute in a way, but it was still totally mad. He wasn't going to have Seamus following him around like some trust fund child in America. He barely left his flat as it was, and the thought of having Seamus standing guard at the front door didn't make him that eager to leave again. He would definitely have to play this to his favor and talk the man out of the bodyguard.

On Thursday afternoon, Draco knocked on his door and Harry opened it to see Neville tagging behind as usual. The blonde pushed past him and strolled into his flat and Neville offered an apologetic shrug as he followed Draco inside.

"This place is the worst. How do you live here?" Draco complained loudly.

"Well it's a step up from a cupboard under the stairs at my relatives," Harry countered. What was everyone's problem with his flat.

"Maybe, half a step," Draco relented and smiled.

The flight was nearly unbearable. First Harry chastised Draco for using his family's private plane, but Draco quickly shut that down. He bluntly told Harry that it would be even more suspect if he were to fly commercial when he had almost exclusively taken his family's plane his entire life, and that he was more than welcome to fly home commercially on his way home. Harry muttered an apology and something about being mistaken and the smug look on Draco's face was unbearable. Well he thought it was unbearable until Draco and Neville kicked off in a heated make out session. He groaned audibly, but they ignored him, and eventually he just gave up and moved as far away from him as he possibly could and tried to tune them out.

He was worried that Hermione wouldn't be able to help them sort out what was going on and even more worried about how Ron would react to the revelation that he was an escort. He hoped the git didn't blow it up way bigger than it should be, there were honestly bigger issues to deal with. Ron could hound him all he wanted after this was sorted, but for now he just needed him to be cooperative and supportive. He also needed for Ron and Draco to stay away from each other as much as possible. They were really similar, but at the same time they regarded each other with little to no respect. Draco thought that was Ron was beneath him and Ron hated that Draco was a pompous jerk. It was a no win situation, especially considering their different upbringings. Everything needed to fall into place perfectly or they wouldn't stand a chance of doing this together.

It had started raining the minute they touched down and Harry hoped that it wasn't some sort of omen that things weren't going to go well. He was throwing everything on the line to tell Ron and then to try to figure out what Rita Skeeter was playing at.

"So, looks like I'm the only girl then," Hermione said when she opened the door to them.

"We can call Loony Lovegood if you prefer," Draco said pushing past her.

"Luna is very bright, and would probably be an asset in this situation," Hermione protested.

"Well by all means call her up then," Draco shot back.

"Ignore him," Harry muttered and hugged her tightly.

"This place is positively medieval," Draco said in disgust. "How do you live here? I didn't think it was possible, but I think we found somewhere worse than your flat." 

"What is wrong with my flat? Leave it be," Harry groaned. "That's not important right now."

After introductions and catching up, Hermione led them all upstairs to her room. She and Ron had pulled some extra chairs in to accommodate the lot of them.

"Now I've done some research. As soon as you called I started looking into this Skeeter lady," Hermione said hotly.

"She's a right witch, mate," Ron said apologetically and Harry nodded.

"There's not a lot about her personal life online. Despite her invasive methods she seems to be a fairly private person. Besides a few arrests for trespassing or violating some sort of order she's got everything locked down," Hermione continued.

"So what do we do?" Harry asked confused.

"We have to establish her routine. We're gonna have to follow her, well you three are, we're up here and she's in London."

"I can't follow her," Harry protested. "She'll recognize me. I don't even know if she's keeping tabs on me or not."

"Right, that's where Draco and Neville come in," she said looking at the pair. "You two are going to have to go to her house in the mornings and follow her around. See who she talks to, where she goes, what she's working on right now."

"So what're you going to do then?" Draco asked skeptically.

"Ron and I are going to monitor on all of her social networking ventures. She has a twitter account and seems to like to drop hints about what she's doing and she runs a blog," Hermione explained.

"Yeah and our mate, Seamus, he's mad with a computer, he can hack her emails," Ron said with a lopsided grin.

Hermione laid the entire plan out before them. Harry was meant to stay as low key as he could, and he was going to have to keep Severus out of the picture. The man wouldn't approve of any of this, and he could very well interrupt their plans. Neville and Draco were going to tail her and then report back anything of interest to Hermione who would start keeping a log of all the things that might come of use to them. Ron was going to work with Seamus on hacking her email servers, home and work. It all felt a like a bit of a spy movie to Harry. He didn't know if any of it would do any good, but hopefully they could find something out so that they knew where to take their next move.

The rest of the weekend was spent with Hermione drilling various plans and procedures into their heads. She made sure that Draco and Neville were aware of the keys to trailing a person without being caught. She then managed to procure Rita's home and work addresses along with the address to her private offices. Harry was honestly in awe of her.

"Wait, wait, there's something else," Harry sighed. "Severus brought this hug bloke named Seamus over and said he's to be my bodyguard."

"Uncle Sev bought you a glorified babysitter," Draco laughed.

"Shut up, if this guy gets in the way then what?" Harry asked looking at Hermione.

"Then you'll have to give him the slip. In the meantime I need you to collect as much of the information that Severus has acquired on Rita and her contacts," Hermione said pointedly.

"What if he doesn't want me to have it?" Harry asked skeptically.

"Oh, there are ways of getting what you want," Draco smirked and made a rude gesture that caused everyone in the room to blush.

"Couldn't we just hire private detectives?" Neville asked after a moment. "Surely they'd be much better at following people around than the lot of us."

"Private detectives can be bought off, and we don't know if could trust one," Hermione admonished him.

Hermione had explained her theory that Rita Skeeter had found their story and it was a big story indeed. A millionaire leader in medical research and discovery had a violent history and to top things off he was dating an escort who had slept with some of the bigger politicians in the country. There was something bigger at play here, otherwise why would she forfeit this story so quickly? Hermione had told them that something connected to Harry and Severus' story must have caught her eye, something bigger, something better. She just needed to keep Severus and Harry out of her way, especially after what Severus had done the last time she had made herself known. She got what she needed on them, but in reality their story was a part of much bigger story that Rita was hoping to nail.

He hoped that the bigger story didn't lead to the five of them getting into something that would be completely over their heads. He knew they had the money to provide the necessary resources, and the brain with Hermione, but he still hoped that they had what it took.

Back in London Harry had fallen ill with a cold and Draco and Neville had been trailing Rita Skeeter for a few days. Harry's only insight into what was happening was when Draco had texted him a photo of Rita clothes shopping and had captioned it 'Seriously? Who is she trying to fool?' even when tailing a psychotic bitch Draco had to comment on her fashion.

He hadn't really been of much use to the cause and getting Severus to come around was proving to be difficult. The man had been in and out of meetings for the past few days, and even getting a reply to his texts was a challenge. Finally, on Wednesday, Severus came calling at his door. Harry wrapped his blanket around him, and padded across the room to open the door. The smile on the man's face fell when he saw that Harry was ill and immediately pushed in.

"You're ill," Severus stated.

"Yeah, I hadn't noticed," Harry smiled.

"Why didn't you say you were ill?"

"It's a cold. You were busy and I've been taking care of myself. Mrs. Weasley even stopped by and made me some soup."

"You could have said. I would have come sooner."

"I could barely get you to reply to a text message, you were clearly busy," Harry scowled.

"I'm sorry," the man confessed. "I just want you to keep in check."

"Aren't I keeping in check with you wanting Seamus to babysit me and then Mrs. Weasley's self prescribed weekly visits?"

"You haven't agreed to Seamus," Severus shot back at him. "We still need to talk about him."

"Wouldn't you rather come and have a bath with me?" Harry smiled.

"I'd love to, but I've gotta run," Severus said glancing at his watch, the one that Harry had given him.

"Why am I not surprised?" Harry sighed.

"I really do want to stay. I'll come back tonight and stay," Severus said kissing him on the forehead and was out the door again.

"I love you too," Harry muttered as the man disappeared out the door.

Harry hoped the man did come back because he was going to ream him for not even saying a proper goodbye, and he intended to use Seamus as a bartering chip. He needed to get his hands on the intel that the man had gathered on Rita Skeeter and her associates, and he had a strong feeling the man would refuse him. So he intended to use Seamus babysitting him as a bargaining chip. It was a sacrifice he didn't want to make, but it was necessary. It should be easy enough to figure out how to give the man the slip when the time came. It would also come in handy if he ever needed to hold anything else over the man's head. In his mind a bodyguard was a glorified babysitter and the Dursley's weren't even willing to get one of those for him.

Harry waited up until around midnight for Severus, but the man didn't show. He finally gave up and had a bath and climbed into bed. He wasn't sure what time it was, but sometime in the early hours of the morning Severus crawled into bed with him and wrapped his arms around him and went to sleep. Harry sleepily noted that he would have to ask the man how he managed to get in.

Unsurprisingly, Harry woke long before Severus did. He slipped out from under the man's arm and padded into the kitchen to make some tea. He took his cup and perched himself on the chair that sat at the end of the bed and watched the man sleep. The man was sprawled out on his side of the bed, a few strands of hair had escaped his hair tie and were slightly obscuring his face. It was odd after so long to see the man asleep in his bed, he'd grown accustomed to a life of solitary and Severus was so keen just to barge in as he pleased. Harry was happy to see him of course, but sometimes it felt like Severus didn't even think about what he wanted. The man came and went as he pleased, and Harry had yet to spend a large sum of time with him since their anniversary, even then there wasn't a whole lot of talking being done.

Harry abandoned his train of thought as the man stirred and looked up at him, and smiled sleepily.

"You should be in bed, you're ill," Severus chastised him.

"Good morning to you too," Harry scowled. "I'm fine. Just having my tea,"

"Sorry, I came in so late," Severus said pushing himself up to sit against the headboard.

"Speaking of, how did you manage to get in?" Harry asked curiously.

"Seamus, is a master lock pick," the man explained.

"You could have knocked," Harry countered.

"I didn't want to wake you."

"But breaking and entering is alright though?" Harry scowled again and the man grimaced.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to upset you," Severus said tiredly. "What can I do to make it better?"

"I want to see what you have on Rita Skeeter,"Harry said ignoring the implications behind Severus' question.

"Why?"

"Because it concerns me too," Harry said sipping his tea. "What could it hurt?"

"I don't think it's a good idea," Severus said looking at him skeptically.

"How about a deal then? I will allow your watchdog Seamus to babysit me, and that's what it is glorified babysitting," Harry said sharply. "If you let me see all of your intel on the woman and of course her associates."

Severus mulled it over for a few minutes before finally agreeing. He said that he would have the files emailed to Harry, and that he wasn't to share the information with anyone. Little did the man know that the first thing he was going to do with the information was forward it to Hermione. She would do most of the reading and the analyzing, and he would just sit by and wait for further instructions. He felt bad for deceiving the man in the fashion, but it was all for the greater good. If they were ever going to be together, and get married like planned, she had to be taken down. The only reason he hadn't caved and included the man was because he knew how objected the man would be, he would try to shut them down before they could make any proper progress.

"Come on and I'll make you some proper breakfast," Severus said offering his hand to Harry who accepted it and allowed himself to be led into the kitchen.

For now he'd have to let on as if he and the others were up to nothing.

**A/N: Thanks for all the lovely reviews so far and thanks for reading! **


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill.**

"What do you mean you're going to Scotland again? You just went last weekend," Severus said hotly.

"It's Hermione's birthday," he reasoned. That was the truth, but there was also things to be planned.

Severus had sent him the information on Rita a few days ago and Hermione had been busily dissecting every piece of it. She wanted them all to come so that they could plan their next move, there was obviously something she had found that was worthwhile.

"Are you seeing someone else?" Severus asked after a moment.

"Are you serious!?" Harry asked outraged. "You're asking if I'm seeing someone else. I know I used to be a whore, but you knew all about that Severus. I'm not that kind of person. It's one of my best mate's birthdays and you're asking me that. Why don't you ask your babysitter once we're back?"

"I'm sorry, it just seems as though something or someone else has caught your attention lately," Severus said after a moment.

"You're always working, and I can't cater to your schedule. Not all of the time. I sit here most of the time with a completely clear slate, but I can't just cancel on her birthday. Next weekend if that's good with you, you can spend the whole weekend sitting in my flat with me," Harry declared. "You need to like give me a heads up if you're going to come over, like send me a text message it's common courtesy. Like, I don't mind you coming at all, but I don't like you barging in, because right now this is my space and I'm trying to make the best of it."

"Are you not happy?" Severus asked quietly.

"No, I"m fucking miserable. I can't come home with you. I wasn't able to see you for months and then when you do get a chance to come around you drop in like you're checking on a neighbor's cat while they're away on holiday. I feel like a pit stop!" Harry went on. "It's like you care more about what Rita Skeeter was up to today than me."

"I'm truly sorry," Severus started.

"Here you should keep this for now," Harry said putting the engagement ring in his hand. "Til you're sure that I'm what you want."

"I am sure, keep it," Severus insisted.

"No, when the time is right give it back to me," Harry said shaking his head. "We're not exactly in a position to get married right now anyway."

"Do you not want to see me anymore?" Severus asked stricken by Harry's words.

"Of course I want to see you, you big idiot! Why do you think I'm so upset. I feel like you've only been seeing me out of obligation!"

"Trust me, I want to see you more than I want to see the sun rising every morning," Severus said kissing him lightly. "You shine brighter than the sun ever could for me, I'm blinded by how magnificent you are."

"Then show it," Harry hissed.

After their argument, Severus excused himself to go and shower, and afterwards quickly dressed and said he had to go, but left Seamus with Harry. Harry regarded the man with little interest and simply told himself to help himself to anything in the fridge. He then went to shower himself and decided he had to get out of the flat. He couldn't just sit there and stew in their argument.

It felt odd having Seamus trail him down the street, and he had to fight the impulse to ditch the man immediately. He wasn't sure what to do with himself, Draco and Neville were busy following Rita around, and his presence would more than likely draw negative attention from the woman. He finally just decided to get a coffee and stew in the window of the shop and watch everyone go on about their day.

He sat down at the table alone and Seamus sat a few tables away from him. He sighed at the sight of the man and did his best to ignore him. He had a few texts from Severus, but he was still mad and just ignored them.

It was pathetic that they were fighting so hard for the right to stay together, but here they were growing distant on their own watch. Arguing and fighting sort of defeated the purpose of all the work they were putting into taking Rita out of the picture. They didn't have a united front, they were both leading two different fronts in the same direction. He knew that he should tell Severus what he was up to, but some part of him felt that he couldn't trust the man not to intervene. He and the others needed free reign to be able to do as they pleased, and Severus was convinced that his method was the better one. Harry hated to tell him, but his method was just going to lead to another standoff. That was another thing he was going to have to work towards, delaying Severus from taking any actual action. He could set off a chain of events that would only make things harder for them in the future.

'Please, talk to me,' Severus texted him again and he sighed in annoyance.

Without responding, he pocketed his phone and tossed his empty cup into the trash and headed out of the shop.

Not wanting to go home yet, he went in search of a present for Hermione. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he sighed pulling it out.

'Don't make plans to come up this weekend. My parents want me to come home, so Ron and I will be coming to London. Have loads to talk about. See you soon!' He smiled at the thought of not having to make the trip.

'See you then. :)'

He sent a message to give Draco and Neville a heads up and wandered into a secondhand shop to look for anything that might make a good gift. He would probably end up buying her, her usual gift of some sort of rare first edition book she'd mentioned before, but he wanted to find something else for her this year. She was putting so much effort into helping him and he wanted to make sure that sure knew how much that he appreciated it.

While looking through the shop he came across an antique science kit, it was in an old metal case and was filled with loads of old looking things. There were some beakers and a microscope, and what looked to be an old journal. Despite how mad he was, it made him think of Severus. He picked it up and decided to buy it for the man. Maybe he could give it to him as a christmas present, or when he wasn't so mad. That was if Seamus didn't spoil the fun by reporting back to Severus what he had picked up.

"You can't tell him I bought this," Harry said looking up at the man. "It's a present for Severus and you'll ruin the surprise."

The man didn't say anything and only offered a curt nod in return.

After more searching Harry managed to come across something that caught his eye. It was a thin, gold necklace with an open book charm hanging on the chain. Hermione was never big on jewelry, but this had caught his eye and he knew it would be perfect. It just had Hermione written all over it. He just hoped that she liked it as much as he thought she would.

After paying for his things Harry headed out of the shop and back out onto the street where it had started to rain. Opting out of getting drenched, he hailed a cab and after a little persuading got Seamus to agree to ride as well. He might not like the man being with him, but he also didn't see the need for the man to walk or take a separate car. He sat in silence on the short trip and ignored the number of times that his phone buzzed. He did take the time to notice that every time he ignored a text from Severus, Seamus's phone would light up. No doubt the man was checking up on him and trying to deduce why Harry wouldn't be answering his texts. That just succeeded in making him even angrier than he already was. Seamus was meant to be a barrier between him and Rita Skeeter, not as a means to keep tabs for Severus. He was going to have to make sure that line was clearly drawn.

When he got out of the cab onto the sidewalk, Severus got out of the car that was parked outside of his door. Harry grimaced at the sight of the man and headed for his door.

"I did text to say that I was coming, several times in fact," Severus said tactfully.

"What do you want?" Harry said turning around in a huff.

"To make you dinner, and to talk, if you're unhappy you've got to communicate with me as to why. I can't read your mind, and I can't fix something I do not know the details of."

Harry turned back to unlocking the door and mulled over whether or not to let the man come up. Finally, stepped aside to let the man pass, but he shook his head.

"I'll be up in a moment. I need to collect a few things from the car."

Harry shrugged noncommittally and headed up the stairs on his own. He let himself in and went straight into his room to dispose of the presents under his bed. When he came out Severus was already unloading his shopping bags. Out of habit, Harry went to help, but Severus batted him away and told him to sit.

"I don't really feel like eating," Harry frowned.

"Why not? Is it because you're still upset with me?" Severus asked raising an eyebrow.

"No, I'm just tired and ill," Harry shook his head and pulled his feet up into his chair so he could hug his knees.

"Let me check your temperature," the man said going into the bathroom in search of a thermometer.

"I don't think I have one," Harry shrugged when the man came back empty handed.

Harry sighed as Severus brushed back his hair and felt his forehead with the back of his hand. The man tutted in disapproval and fetched the blanket on the back of the couch and wrapped it around him.

"You've got a bit of a fever. You shouldn't have gone out today, unless it was to go to the doctor," he said pointedly.

"I felt better earlier," Harry protested.

"Come then, to bed with you," the man said hoisting him up into his arms and carrying him into his room and depositing him on the bed.

"Will you stay?" Harry asked and the man nodded.

"I cancelled a whole day of meetings to spend time with you, and I intend to even if you're sleeping. I'll go out and get you something for your fever."

Harry didn't remember dozing off or how long he had been out. All he remembered was Severus coming back with the medicine for him and after that he had slipped off to sleep. When he woke up he was drenched in sweat from his broken fever and Severus was asleep beside of him. He sat up cautiously and pulled off his shirt and climbed out of bed. He padded into the bathroom and turned on the shower. He felt disgusting and wouldn't be able to get back to sleep at this point without the shower. He climbed in and sighed at the contact with the warm water and started to shampoo his hair.

When he had finished he tip toed back into the bedroom and pulled on some pants and a shirt. He then slid back into bed to be greeted by a kiss from Severus.

"Feeling better?" The man asked huskily, his voice laced with sleep.

"Much. Thank you for taking care of me," Harry smiled into another kiss.

"I miss kissing you goodnight," Severus said crawling on top of him to kiss him again.

"Me too."

Severus kissed him again and slid his hand up Harry's shirt feeling his chest and stomach. It wasn't long before Harry had lost his shirt completely, and Severus was kissing his way down Harry's neck and onto his chest.

"You love me more than I deserve, Harry," Severus said coming up to kiss his mouth again.

Harry woke up with daylight bleeding through the curtains in his bedroom. It was like the only purpose it served was to annoy him. He rolled over and buried his head in Severus' chest and tried to go back to sleep.

"You can't still be tired," Severus said kissing the top of his head. "You slept for roughly 12 hours."

"More like 10, because I vaguely remember a midnight tryst," Harry grinned.

"Ah, my mistake," the man said pulling him closer.

"I'm not going to Scotland," Harry said after a moment.

"Oh, why not?"

"Hermione and Ron are coming to London. I'm going to take them to dinner for her birthday. Would you like to come?" Harry mused running his fingers across Severus' pale stomach.

"When?"

"Saturday night," Harry said lightly.

"I would love to, but I've got a dinner meeting with an investor from Hong Kong," Severus said apologetically. "But next time. You go and have fun."

"Thanks," Harry smiled to himself.

Harry put the kettle on while Severus busied himself with taking a shower. He poked around the kitchen putting things away and the dishes into the sink. Severus had made dinner while he was sleeping and Harry found the leftovers in the fridge when he went to get the milk.

Something about his relationship with Severus felt lighter, last night had been really nice, and he just hope it wasn't a one off. He was scared that the man would get wrapped up in work again and things would start to unravel again. Then there was the topic of Seamus he wasn't sure how to bring that up, or to make it clear that the man was a bodyguard and not a spy. He didn't need Severus to spy on him, and on Saturday he was going to ask that the man stay behind. He would be in a group of his friends and didn't see the need for the man to tail him through the city.

"I don't want Seamus to come with me Saturday night," Harry confessed as Severus came into the small kitchen.

"Why not?"

"It's meant to be a fun night out celebrating Hermione's birthday and no one is going to have fun if he's tagging along," Harry sighed.

"Fine then, not Saturday night then," Severus conceded.

"Thank you," Harry said hugging him tightly. "But there's one more thing."

"Which is?" Severus asked raising an eyebrow.

"I don't want you to use Seamus for personal reasons. Like I understand him reporting back to you at the end of each day if anything were to happen, but I do not want you using him to keep tabs on me. If I go to the coffee shop he doesn't need to shoot you a text message telling you," Harry said quietly and looked to the man to to gage his reaction.

"That's his job," Severus started slowly. "If something were to happen and he didn't alert me that you are indeed safe and at home, then I would know that something is wrong."

"It's glorified babysitting!" Harry protested. "I agreed to let him follow me around because I knew it would make you feel better, but this doesn't make me feel better."

"He stays, and he does his job," Severus said calmly. "Now I must be off, I have to go to work."

Severus kissed him on the forehead and wished him a good day and was out the door.

So much for things being lighter he thought and scowled when he spotted Seamus sitting outside his doorway. At least Severus had conceded to Saturday he grumbled to himself.

**A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Diary of a Call Girl.**

He and Severus hadn't really spoken since their disagreement, it wasn't even that bad of a fight, but Harry still felt put out by it. He hadn't been answering Severus' calls and when he did they barely said more than a few words to each other. He sort of felt like he was just a part of a plan and that Rita Skeeter was the bigger picture. The entire reason that they were trying to take her down was so that they could be together, but it felt like their relationship had taken a backseat to the situation. He just sort of felt tired of fighting with Severus over it and just decided to have some space instead.

Luckily, on Friday night Ron and Hermione had arrived and he had an immediate distraction to take his mind off of the man and their disagreement. Hermione came bearing a minor breakthrough with their efforts and Ron was grinning broadly because he had helped her reach her conclusion.

She had found a minor connection between Rita Skeeter and Tom Riddle. She had come across a series of articles in the Daily Mail that Rita had written. They were all about how she had gone undercover to expose one of Riddle's minor smuggling rings in Manchester. Loads of his upper ranking associates had been imprisoned for it, but they couldn't quite connect Riddle to the operation. It had been a rather large inconvenience and Hermione was puzzled about how she had managed to get away with it without consequences. Her only theory was since Riddle wasn't charged with anything, and they didn't have any evidence on him he had to let it go. If something had happened to Rita Skeeter then he would have definitely been a major suspect. She had been slinging his name through the mud for weeks without any proper proof that it was him. That would be enough to set someone like him off surely.

Tom Riddle was one of the most notorious criminals on the planet, but Hermione hadn't managed to find a single smudge on his record. He was clean, somehow he had managed to keep his name and fingerprints off of everything he touched. Loads of people that were known to be involved with him had gone done for him, but never the man in charge himself. It was rather impressive when Harry thought about it.

Harry was stood on the pavement, smoking and waiting for Draco to pick him up. They were meeting Ron and Hermione at the restaurant, but Draco was late as usual. Harry was surprised when a cab pulled up instead of Draco's usual slick, black Mercedes pulled up. Harry climbed in and looked at him questioningly.

"My driver is ill," Draco scowled. "This is positively barbaric."

"It's a cab, it's not the end of the world," Harry laughed.

"So says you," Draco answered pettily.

When they arrived Hermione and Ron were outside waiting on him. Ron grinned brightly and Hermione seemed stressed about their lateness. Harry quickly apologized and they headed inside and a waiter led them to their table.

"Happy Birthday, Mione," Harry smiled and handed her the gift bag with her book in it.

"Thank you, Harry," she said pushing aside the gift paper and revealing the book with a smile.

"There's one more thing. I saw this and immediately thought of you," he said fishing the necklace box out of his pocket and handing it to her.

"Oh, Harry it's lovely!" She exclaimed as she pulled the necklace out. "You shouldn't have!"

"I couldn't not get it. You're great Mione and you're helping me out with all of this, you deserve it."

"Thank you!" She said getting up to hug him.

"Happy Birthday, Granger," Draco said pulling an envelope out of his coat pocket and sliding it across the table.

Everyone looked to Harry in confusion and he just shrugged and motioned for her to open it. She gasped loudly as soon as she pulled out the contents. She laid the check down on the table for everyone to see. Draco had written her a check for a thousand pounds for her birthday.

"Draco that's too much. I can't accept this," She said earnestly offering the check back to him.

"Nonsense," he smirked waving her away. "You're my friend now and I take care of my friends. Besides, my family has more money than I know what to do with."

"You're definitely invited to my birthday," Ron grinned and Hermione smacked his arm playfully.

Dinner was going well until Hermione kicked him under the table and he looked up in surprise.

"It's him!" She hissed loudly to the rest of them.

"Who?" Ron asked in confusion.

"Tom Riddle!" She said impatiently as if they should all know.

"Where?" Harry asked confused.

"Over there," she said gesturing to a nearby table.

Harry had to admit that Tom Riddle was a stunning man, with his wavy, brown hair and stunning blue eyes. The man could definitely turn heads and his smile was charming to say the least. He had the small group of people that were eating with him wrapped around his finger. They hung off of every word that he said, and how could they not with that smile. There was a welcoming air about him, but Harry could sense something else, it's like under the welcoming nature there was something dangerous under it all. He caught the man's eye and a shiver ran down his spine.

The man sent one of his dazzling smiles Harry's way when he realized that Harry was staring at him. Harry blushed and quickly looked away, kicking himself for being caught staring.

Harry tried to turn his attention away from the man who was now staring back and onto his plate, but every time he chanced looking up the man was regarding him a look of interest. Every time he caught his eye he would send a small smile Harry's direction. He pushed the potatoes around on his plate and resolved not to look in the man's direction again.

"That bastard is flirting with you," Draco scowled looking between the pair of them.

"Well it's not working," Harry said shaking his head.

"Are you sure about that?" Ron teased.

"Excuse me, sir," one of the waiters interrupted them.

"Me?" Harry asked and the man nodded.

"Pardon the interruption, but the gentleman over there sent this bottle of champagne to you and your friends. He has also paid for your tables meals," the man said briefly and walked away.

Harry looked at the others in confusion and was met by a series of shrugs.

"There's a note. Read it," Draco urged.

Harry looked at the small note hanging off of the neck of the bottle and picked it off. He carefully unfolded it and read it aloud:

"You have the most exquisite eyes. Allow me to pay you a compliment and for your evening. Have a wonderful celebration and enjoy the champagne. -Tom," Harry read blushing.

"He's definitely flirting with you!," Draco said in disgust. "Don't try to deny it now we have definitive proof."

"Gross. As if," Harry said darkly.

"Don't put it completely out of your mind," Hermione said pensively as Ron poured everyone a glass of the champagne.

"Are you mad?" Harry asked in disbelief.

"Think of him more as a means to an end," she said after a moment.

"Lest we forget that Harry here is in a relationship with my godfather," Draco threw in.

"Yes, we all know that," Hermione said dismissively. "I'm talking about stringing him along. If someone like Tom Riddle takes notices of you in a positive manor, it's an opportunity not to be missed. Especially because of your current predicament."

"He's not even interested in me," Harry protested. "He's just showing off."

"You don't just buy a bottle of champagne that costs 500 pounds to flirt," Draco said matter-of-factly and Ron choked on his drink.

"You're joking?" Harry asked eyeing the bottle with suspicion.

"I never joke about expensive gifts," Draco said inspecting his nails.

"No one mention this to Severus. It's stupid and I don't want to deal with this on top of everything else," Harry said sullenly and they all nodded.

Harry was distracted for the rest of the night. He had trouble following the conversation and couldn't say that he could be happier when they finally decided to call it a night. Tom Riddle had flirted with him mercilessly and he wasn't sure what this all meant.

He knew that he had a knack for attracting the wrong sort of attention with Rita and everything, but this was a whole different league. The man that Rita Skeeter was trying to bring down had flirted with him, someone who was in the way of her taking the man down. He wasn't sure what this meant, or if it was a sign, but he did his best to forget that it had happened.

Harry stood distracted as Draco helplessly tried to hail a cab. He looked up and someone caught his eye. It took him a minute to realize that Seamus was standing across the street in a half assed disguise watching him and Draco. The man had probably been tailing them all night and he felt the anger boil over inside of him. Severus had promised that the man wouldn't follow them and here he was tailing Harry in secret the entire night. Draco touched his arm to tell him that he had gotten them a cab. He climbed into the car and slammed the door behind him and the driver yelled at him, but he ignored the man's protests.

"What's eating you?" Draco prodded.

"Severus is a prick," he grumbled.

"What's he done?" Draco asked curiously.

"He promised. He fucking promised that Seamus wouldn't come out with us tonight and he was fucking standing across the street from us at the restaurant. He's just using him to keep tabs on me. I should have never agreed to him!" Harry ranted.

"So confront him about it," Draco suggested.

"I just confronted him about it, that's why I haven't been talking much with him to begin with. He's mad, I'm mad I don't know, but I'm tired of him watching over me like this," Harry huffed.

"Uncle Sev sounds a little too caught up in this mess," the blonde admitted and Harry nodded.

The rest of the ride was spent in silence. Harry was pissed and Draco kept casting him worrying looks. When he got home he told Draco goodbye and stormed up to his flat. He slammed the door and locked it and then closed all of his blinds. The man could stand outside all fucking day if he wanted to but he wasn't going to be looking in on him.

He paced back and force in the sitting room before pulling out his phone and angrily dialing Severus' number.

"Hello?" Severus answered.

"You're a right bloody git, you know that?!" Harry started.

"What's this about?" Severus asked confused.

"Remember when you said that Seamus wouldn't be tailing me tonight? Well imagine my surprise when I was getting a cab home and who else but Seamus was standing across the street from me," Harry all but spat into the receiver. "You fucking promised. It was him in a shitty disguise and everything. You can't just keep tabs on me because you want to."

"I'm trying to keep you safe!" Severus insisted angrily.

"I don't need you to keep me safe! I don't need you to watch me like a hawk every hour of the day! I'm so sick of it Severus. I want you to back off," Harry demanded.

"Everything is in flux right now, Harry. I'm only doing what's best for you. I don't know what's going to happen and I want you to be safe!"

"I can look out for myself!" Harry insisted. "This is more than safety Severus. It's as though you don't trust me. We lived together for nearly the entirety of our relationship, and it's as if now you don't know how to handle me being on my own. I was on my own for three months without you, I think I can handle myself and if you think I'd ever stray you've got another damn thing coming! I might have been an escort Severus but I was open the entire fucking time about it. You knew every client that I had and when I stopped I stopped for good. I wouldn't sleep with anyone for personal gain or financial. I'd never cheat on you, do you think so little of me?"

"I'm doing this for your own good!" Severus insisted once more.

"No you're doing it for your own good and I'm doing this for mine, because I'm done Severus. I'm beyond done," Harry replied harshly and hung up the phone and threw it onto the couch.

Trying not to cry he went and got ready for a shower. When he had finished he got ready for bed and climbed into bed alone and the only thought that he had was that he would have to get used to always sleeping alone again. He couldn't believe that he had just ended things with Severus. Had he ended things had he meant to do it? He wasn't sure and sort of felt that part of him was in shock from the entire thing.

He just couldn't handle the way Severus had been acting. He had let all of this consume him and had been using Seamus as an excuse and Harry couldn't handle it anymore. If Severus wanted to fix things then he could come to him, but he wasn't the one in the wrong here, and wasn't going to cave. He was going to stand his ground and if Severus couldn't wake up and realize what he had done wrong, then so be it. Ashes to ashes and all of that.

**A/N: Oooo Things are starting to really heat up. Haha. Hope you liked it, this one came to me pretty quickly. Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill. **

"You're bloody mad you are," Draco said after Harry had told him the news of his and Severus' breakup/argument.

"He was using Seamus in some weird stalkerish way and when I confronted him about it he used those reasons for doing it," Harry sighed tiredly.

The entire situation had been tiresome. Ever since he had told Severus that he was done the man was relentless in his apologies. Harry had grown annoyed by the constant calls and text messages and had blatantly ignored the man when he had stopped by. It had been less than a week and Harry was determined to make a point that he was being serious about this. If he caved and just let the man by with it he wouldn't stop.

Sure he was miserable as well, but this was all a part of making the bigger picture better. He had kept himself busy with incessantly cleaning his flat. There really wasn't anything left to clean at the this point, but here he was scrubbing the counter top while Draco sat there and regarded him with a mixture of disgust and awe. He couldn't help it, it was the only thing that kept his hands and mind busy, if he just sat around all day he would definitely cave and text Severus back.

"I'm just saying, my godfather is well annoying and he's even asked me about you," Draco said annoyed.

"Well you never have any problem telling someone to stop or fuck off any other time," Harry said looking up at him.

"You're being rather stoic about this entire thing," Draco said observantly. "Besides he's my godfather and I do sort of feel sorry for him."

"He's been a prick," Harry said scrubbing even harder.

"If you don't cut that out you're going to have to replace your countertops, because they'll be warn away."

"I need to keep busy," Harry sighed. "Between Rita and Severus I'll go mad."

"Speaking of Rita, Hermione has given us a task."

"Which is?"

"We need to break into her office. See if she's got anything in there that could be of use," he answered with a smirk.

"How are we meant to do that?" Harry asked. "I don't know how to pick a lock, do you?"

"That's what the internet is for," Draco said in annoyance. "Neville, has been watching videos on how to pick locks."

"Who is going to be watching Rita while the three of us break into her office?" Harry asked confused.

"Pansy and Blaise. I haven't told them why," Draco held up a hand to stop him. "I just asked them to watch her and update me on what she's up to."

"Right, so Neville can definitely get past the lock?" Harry asked.

"I have all the faith in the world in him," Draco smiled fondly. "Speaking of Neville I need to get back to him."

"Right, I'll see you later then," Harry said following Draco to the door.

After Draco had gone his attention was immediately drawn back to his phone and in an effort to ignore Severus he started pulling everything out of the closet in his sitting room. This was the third time that he had gone through this particular closet in the last few days, but it couldn't hurt. He had just managed to pull everything out into the floor when someone knocked at his didn't know who it could be and sighed at the mess he created before crossing the room to answer it.

He pulled the door open to find himself staring face to face with Tom Riddle. The first thing that came to him was to panic, but he managed to force it down and smile questioningly instead. The man held up a single white rose and gave him a dazzling smile in return.

"Hello," Tom smiled and Harry just managed to stare at him. "The polite thing would be to say hello back," the man prompted him.

"Um hi," Harry managed to breathe out.

"Can I come in?"

"Oh yeah, of course," Harry said stepping aside. "Sorry, the place is a bit of a mess."

"I don't mind," the man said casting a quick glance around. "This is for you."

"Oh, thanks," Harry said accepting the flower and offering a small smile.

"I wanted to bring dozens for you," he admitted after a moment. "But something told me that less is more when it comes to you."

"How did you find out where I live if you don't mind me asking?" Harry asked abruptly.

"It's not hard. You made the reservation at the restaurant in your name. My assistant asked around and well here I am."

"I have a boyfriend...well sort of," Harry blurted out and wanted to kick himself.

"Oh, I don't mind. Does he live here?" The man asked curiously while inspecting the area that Harry had been studying.

"No," harry shook his head. "We're sort of still figuring things out to be honest."

"Ah, troubled waters then?"

"Something like that I don't know," Harry frowned. "We were engaged, twice, and now I'm not even sure if we're still together."

"Ah," the man said lightly.

"Sorry, I shouldn't just blurt things out like that. Why did I even tell you that?" Harry said quickly.

"You're very noble, and very beautiful," Tom said after a moment. "Forgive me if I'm being brash, but allow me to be so brazen as to ask you to lunch tomorrow?"

He knew he should turn the man down, but he also had what Hermione had told him sitting at the back of his mind. This could be an opportunity that they might not get again, he reasoned with himself. This was an opportunity to get an in, and try to find out what Skeeter might be up to. He didn't want to do this to Severus though, it wasn't fair. He would go to lunch tomorrow, it was neutral ground, he'd find out what he could and then let the man down gently. He'd tell the man that he and Severus had made up or something. They would just have to find another way to figure things out.

After he had agreed to the lunch date, and the man had left, he briefly debated telling the other's of Tom's proposal. He decided against it and decided that he would only tell them after the entire thing was over with. That way they wouldn't be able to change his mind about not seeing the man again.

This was definitely proving to distract him from Severus. Especially after his phone lit up with a text from Tom saying that he would pick Harry up at noon the following day. That made Harry wonder how the man had managed to obtain his number. Although, it was probably a piece of piss for someone like Tom who had an entire network of skilled individuals working for them.

The next morning Harry was in a right tizzy. He must have changed his clothes four times before finally settling on what to wear. He didn't know why he was so worried about how he looked, and part of him boiled it down to his former escorting career and the need to look right for every occasion. And this occasion just so happened to be a window into everything they were working towards, or at least he hoped so.

Exactly at noon, there was a knock on his door and he readied himself before pulling it open. Tom stood there with a charming smile and offered him another rose. He thanked him and put it in the small vase with the one from the day before.

After a few moments of awkward lingering the man said they should go, and muttered something about a surprise. Harry could feel his stomach doing flip flops and part of him felt extremely guilty over Severus. He kept reminding himself that this wasn't a real date, and it was a means to an end, but his conscious did not lay off at all.

Tom was going on about something, but Harry was too busy talking himself down to pay much attention and did his best to nod and agree in the appropriate places.

"Harry?" Tom asked looking slightly concerned by his distance. "I asked if everything was okay."

"Oh, yeah...well I don't know I sort of feel guilty going out with you I guess," Harry shrugged noncommittally.

"Your honesty is quite refreshing. How about we do this as friends then?" Tom offered and Harry nodded with a small smile. "Good then it's settled!"

Harry felt slightly better after that, but it there was still a tiny nagging voice that would pop up and he would have to push aside. He wasn't going to do anything with the man but talk and have lunch. This wasn't anything to worry about, or at least he hoped not. He didn't know Tom Riddle that well and just knew of his reputation. He tried to stop himself from zoning out and focused on the man who could potentially very dangerous. He couldn't let his guard down today.

They arrived outside of a small restaurant that looked quite posh, and Tom quickly hurried around the car and opened his door for him. Harry nodded at him appreciatively and looked at the restaurant with interest. It looked like the place was closed and he didn't know if Tom had expect this or not.

"It looks like this place is closed," Harry said after a moment. "Maybe we should go somewhere else?"

"It is closed, but only because I had it closed so we could have lunch in peace," Tom grinned slyly. "Come on then let's go in."

Harry followed in a slight stupor. How had the man managed this? Well probably because he had quite an influence and loads of money but nevertheless. Harry didn't understand why he would want to shutdown an entire restaurant just to have lunch with him.

"I'm sorry if this is a bit much," the man confessed after a moment and Harry shrugged.

"It's okay," he mused after a moment and looked around at the place.

"I actually own, well partially own this place," Tom said knowingly and it suddenly made more sense to him. "I thought we could make lunch together."

"That'd be great," Harry nodded and knew that it might be the perfect opportunity to talk to the man.

As he followed Tom into the kitchen he sort of wished that he had at least told Hermione. She would have at least had some advice on how to talk to the man. He was used to talking to strangers and winging it essentially, but something about this felt different. This was more real, this was a part of a something that didn't end in a few hours with whoever he was out with stuff a thousand pounds into his pocket and the two of them going their separate ways.

"So what do you do then?" Harry asked curiously.

"Well I own part of this place and loads of other things I like to think of myself as a dabbler. I have my hands in loads of different pots," he answered vaguely. "And what about you?"

"I'm studying to sit my exams," Harry answered honestly and the man looked surprised.

"How old are you then?" Tom asked a little worried.

"Nineteen," he smiled. "I just sort of said fuck it the first time and didn't show up."

"Ahhh," the man smiled and turned to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of wine. "What do you want to do then?"

"Go to university," Harry shrugged. "I don't know what for yet, I'm just sort of taking it one step at a time."

"A good plan."

Harry wasn't of much use in the kitchen, and idly sat and watched Tom make his own pasta by hand. He was pretty impressed, he had never seen it done before and would have probably just bought whatever he had needed to cook with.

"What're you making then?" Harry asked curiously.

"I'm making ravioli with a mushroom and smoked mozzarella filling." 

"Impressive," Harry grinned.

Lunch wasn't very helpful when it came to getting anything useful out of Tom. He asked Harry about where he grew up and Harry told him of living with his aunt and uncle and how he had gotten away the moment he had come of age. Tom told him that he didn't have parents either and was raised in an orphanage, but ran away when he was 16 and had gotten a job and made a name for himself. He was incredibly vague about his line of work, but Harry already knew what the man did and what he was capable of.

It was strange to see someone who he had read and heard all of these horrible things about act positively normal. He wouldn't be able to pick him out of a lineup if given the opportunity. Harry began to assume that Tom Riddle kept his two worlds very separate. He might be a notorious villain when he was getting work done, but when he was away from it all he was just Tom who owned a restaurant and liked football a lot. The man had probably never dirtied his hands in his entire life, and he sort of felt like Tom would be able to talk anyone into doing anything for him. Meeting the man definitely cleared things up as far as the man never having been charged before.

After lunch Tom asked him if he would like to walk the short distance to his flat and Harry hesitantly agreed. Nothing useful came out of the man then either, and Harry wasn't sure how to probe for more. It was much too soon to be too forward and arouse suspicion. The most he got out of the man was an animated chat about big of a Liverpool FC supporter he was and Harry had confessed that he used to be a big fan of football and had played a bit, but lately hadn't kept up with anything.

"I'll take you to a game sometime," Tom smiled down at him.

"That'd be lovely," Harry tried to sound appreciative.

"I'd like to see you again," the man confessed as they stopped outside of Harry's flat.

"Erm," Harry started but the man held up a hand to stop him instead.

"Don't decide yet. Just think about it and if you'd like to go out again text or call me," Tom smiled and the car that had picked them up pulled up in front of Harry's flat.

"Alright," Harry nodded.

"Today was a real pleasure. Hopefully, I will see you soon," Tom said placing a kiss on his cheek. "Goodbye, Harry."

"Goodbye," Harry said rubbing the spot that he had been kissed.

He waited for the man to pull away before he went inside. Before, he could make it to his door he had his phone out and was dialing Draco's number. He needed to tell someone and the first person he wanted to tell was Draco.

Tom wasn't a bad bloke, well he was, but as far as the date had gone he had been a perfect gentleman. It was a nice date Harry decided, but it wasn't Severus. Nothing would measure up to meeting the man on New Years and the immediate pull he had felt towards him. He felt guilty again and fought the urge to call Severus, they both needed space and he didn't want to break in a moment of desperation and then push the man away again a few days later.

He was really confused, and he didn't think he'd see Tom again. The man was dangerous and so was what they were doing. He didn't want Tom to find out that he was using him, or for Severus to find out and make the wrong assumption. He might have sort of broken up with the man, but he didn't want to hurt him in this way. He worried that Severus might not ever forgive him if he found out about Tom and their date.

**A/N: Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill. **

Harry and Draco sat in front of his computer waiting for Ron and Hermione to video chat them. Draco had pressed him for details, but he had insisted on telling them all together. He couldn't shake the feeling of doubt he had about the entire situation, he knew that Severus would more than likely hate him for it. He knew that he couldn't keep it from him, it wasn't fair. He might not tell who the date was with, but the fact that he had gone on one was bad enough.

Finally, Ron and Hermione popped up on the screen and he smiled weakly.

"Harry are you okay?" Hermione asked, her voice filled with concern. "You're as white as a sheet."

"Our friend Harry here has just been on a date," Draco said smugly. "Tell them who with Harry."

"Tom Riddle," he said after a moment and Ron and Hermione gave him matching looks of shock.

"What? Why didn't you tell us that he'd asked you out?" Hermione started immediately.

"He just showed up at my flat. He said he got my name from someone at the restaurant and the rest was a piece of piss basically."

"Why didn't you tell us, mate?" Ron repeated Hermione's question.

"The only reason I went was to let him down and tell him I couldn't see him again. It doesn't feel right with Severus and everything," he sighed looking down at his hands.

"So did you let him down?" Draco asked curiously.

"Not yet, I was going to text him later," Harry shrugged.

"Classy," Draco laughed and Harry shoved him.

"I have to tell Severus, it's just wrong to keep it from him. I feel sick about it and I know that he's going to hate me," Harry told them worriedly.

"You don't know my godfather like I do," Draco started. "You can't tell him, he'd never forgive you. He's not the easiest man to trust anyone and he loves you. You can't throw everything away over a pissy little date that didn't even end with a kiss."

"What about using him to get to Skeeter?" Hermione asked hopefully.

"I can't do it Mione. It feels all wrong. I'm sick to my teeth over this."

"Don't worry, everything will sort itself out," she reassured him and he wished he could believe her.

After Ron and Hermione had left and it was just him and Draco the pair of them made plans for when they were going to break into Rita's office. Draco and Neville had been tailing her for awhile now and sort of had her schedule worked out. Draco told him that the woman never went to her office after 6 in the evening and it would be the perfect time for them to make their move. They just couldn't be too suspicious about it. As if picking a lock in a public place surrounded by CCTV cameras wasn't suspicious enough. They finally decided that Friday afternoon would be their best shot, because the woman didn't visit the office on weekends and it would be free for them to make their move.

He couldn't say he was excited to be committing a crime, but he had technically committed a crime every time that he had gone out to meet a client and accepted money. This was different, this felt more real, and this posed the risk of actually being caught and charged with something. Rita would love that to be able to charge them with breaking and entering and whatever else she could throw at them. It would make her fucking day, so that was another reason they had to be extremely careful. It was going to take more people, and Ron and Hermione weren't exactly available. The pair of them decided that it was time to involve more people into their plans. Draco would ask Pansy and Blaise to tail the woman for the evening and Harry would find Luna and ask her to be their lookout. He hoped that everything went off without a hitch.

After Draco had gone and he was left to stew in his emotions he couldn't take it anymore. He had to see Severus, he had to tell him he was sorry for the way that he had acted. Severus was too important for them to not be together. He reached for his phone and dialed the man and waited impatiently behind each ring.

"Hello?" Severus asked and he sounded distracted.

"Severus?" Harry all but sobbed.

"What's the matter Harry?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm so sorry. I'm such a wanker. Please forgive me. I don't want to play these petty games anymore. I overreacted," Harry said feeling the hot tears start to slide down his face.

"It's okay Harry, we both acted like horribly," Severus said warmly into the phone. "We're allowed to mess things up every now and then. All that matters is that we manage to sort it out and don't let it continue to stand between us."

"Can I see you? Can you come over?' Harry asked desperately. "There's something I need to tell you."

He decided then and there that he had to tell Severus, and that if the man never wanted to speak to him again at least he had been honest. That it would only make things worse later if the man were to find out on his own. He was sure that Seamus was still lurking around the bend just waiting to divulge any news to Severus. He wanted to kick himself for being so incredibly stupid.

"I'm not in town Harry. I'm in New York, I did try to tell you, but you wouldn't answer my calls."

"Yeah, sorry," Harry grumbled miserably. "When will you be back?"

"In a week or so, it all just depends on how these meetings go," Severus said apologetically. "What's wrong why can't you tell me now?"

"It's nothing that I want to talk about on the phone," Harry said quietly.

"Did something happen? What's wrong?" Severus asked a little more urgently.

"I'll see you then, yeah?" Harry asked quietly.

"As soon as I land," Severus promised.

He ended the call and took up residence in his favorite spot, his chair. He just hoped that Severus came home sooner rather than later. He didn't want to carry this around any longer than he had to. It wasn't fair to Severus to keep it from him. Severus who had looked past his escorting and loved him unconditionally, or at least he hoped so. His date with Tom could be the one condition that happened to break that streak. He just knew he couldn't ever marry the man without telling him.

Friday night found Harry with Draco and Neville staked out across the street from the building that hosted Rita Skeeter's office. They were impatiently waiting for the woman to leave and head home for the weekend and Blaise and Pansy were nearby waiting to tail her and keep them abreast of her movements. When the blonde woman finally made her exit, they were nearly too eager to pounce. Neville insisted that they wait an additional fifteen minutes to make sure that she wouldn't come back for something she may have forgotten. It wouldn't due for her to catch them breaking into her office on her way back for something.

Finally, the three of them split up and approached the rear of the building from different routes and met near the backdoor. Luckily for them, the backdoor was pretty well hidden from any view of the street and they would more than likely be left alone. After all, if a police officer did happen to walk by, Draco was incredibly posh and could probably talk his way out of anything.

Neville set to work on picking the lock while he and Draco kept watch for anyone who might be unwelcome. After a few minutes of fighting with the pair of locks on the door Neville was finally able to get the door open.

"Holy shit," Draco said as they stepped into the woman's sanctuary. The place was his worst nightmare. Everything was done in various shades of pink and the furniture even had pink fur on it and the pillows on the couch were a particularly horrible shade of pink.

"This place is downright horrible," Neville said taking his own time to look around.

"Well it's a nice match for the bitch then," Harry said wearily glancing at the pen holder that's rim was done in the pink feathery stuff.

Harry walked over behind the desk and gingerly took a seat in the fuzzy chair that sat behind her desk. He pulled his gloves up and woke up her computer.

"She didn't even lock it," Harry said surprised when a picture of her in riding gear with a white horse popped up as the wallpaper.

"She looks like she's on the Essex version of Downton Abbey," Draco smirked at the picture.

Harry continued to go through her computer, but wasn't having much luck. While Neville went through the filing cabinets and Draco did the same with her desk.

"Why is all of this so easy to get to?" Harry asked skimming her emails.

"I don't think that anyone is meant to know about this place," Neville said looking up from the paper he was reading. "We tailed her for ages now and not one person other than her has ever set foot inside this office."

"What do you reckon this is?" Draco asked slapping a black diary down onto the desktop.

Harry flipped the cover open and started flipping through the pages. He didn't know what it was, it was all written in some kind of shorthand and the only thing he could make out was that this was something that she wanted to keep private. He kept looking and was making nothing out of the words and symbols that occupied the pages of the journal. He found some sort of list of what seemed like names, but he couldn't make out any of it.

"What is this?" Neville asked peering over his shoulder.

"I have no idea she's got it all wrapped up into some sort of code," Harry said frustrated.

"There's a photocopier over there, let's get as much of it as we can," Draco suggest and Harry shook his head.

"She might notice that something has been used. We'll take photos of it instead," he answered and pulled out his phone.

They carefully photographed as many pages of the book as they could and made sure that everything was back in place. They locked the door and made their way out of the back alley and onto the street. Draco hailed a cab and the three of them were off, hopefully leaving no sign of their presence.

Once they were safely on their way, Harry emailed all of the pictures to Hermione and asked her if she knew or could figure out what the pages of the book had said. Whatever it was it was clearly very important and Rita didn't want anyone to be able to read any of it on first glance. He had no faith in himself, but if anyone could solve this it would be Hermione.

Later at home all he could manage to do was to feel frustrated by everything. He was super impatient to find out what they had uncovered in their little break in and even more impatient for Severus to come home. All he had to do was to wait and it was driving him mad. He spent time trying to study, or to do anything that might be productive, but most of his time was spent pacing in his sitting room. It did nothing to soothe him and if anything it only made him more on edge. He just wanted some form of closure, if it was something they could use then great, but if it was nothing he needed to know so that they could get cracking on their next move.

**A/N: Sorry this chapter is a bit shorter than normal, but I wanted to update and just know that big things are coming soonish I hope. Thanks for reading and reviewing! I've also sort of started another Snarry if you want to check it out it's under my name and it's called 'Just Always Be Waiting For Me.'**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Call Girl. **

Harry found himself slipping while Severus was away. He had stopped eating regularly and sleeping was nearly out of the question and he only saw his friends sparingly. There were no new leads in the Rita Skeeter thing and he was left to stew in his worry. He had more than a few rows with Draco over how he was behaving, and eventually the blonde gave up and left him to it. He was mostly made at himself for going on the date and for even worse getting caught up in how Severus might react. That's what bothered him most was having Severus possibly hate him in anyway or being disappointed in him. Even worse than that was the possibility that Severus might never want to see him again.

The night before the man was due to be home was probably the worse. It was spent drinking one pot of coffee after the other in an effort to keep himself awake and ready for the man's arrival. He was wrecked with worry and anxiety of what might happen and just getting it over with. He felt like getting it off of his chest might make him feel better. If Severus decided he didn't want to see him again then at least he would have the answer, at least then he could work on moving forward from there. Every time he thought of having to move forward without Severus again, he felt this gut wrenching ache course through him. The past three months had nearly killed him and he didn't know if he could move on if Severus was the one who decided that he didn't want to continue anymore. This was different, this wound would be self inflicted.

Time seemed to drag on, he couldn't help but watch the small clock in his apartment, willing Severus to arrive sooner rather than later. It was like time was standing still and he even checked to make sure the clock was working properly.

He wasn't sure when he had drifted off early that morning, having crashed from all of the coffee he's used to fuel his anxiety driven state. He nearly jumped out of his skin when Severus touched his arm. He shot up off of the couch and across the room as the man studied him in confusion. Severus motioned for him to come there, but he shook his head and hugged himself tightly.

"What's going on? What's happened that you felt you couldn't tell me over the phone?" Severus asked worriedly.

"I went on a date with some bloke that I met at Hermione's birthday party. It was while we were arguing and it didn't mean anything, nothing happened. I just felt so fucking guilty afterwards and all I could think about these past few days was how I probably cocked everything up with you. I don't think I could stand it if I have," Harry said quickly and stood in front of the man nervously playing with the hem of his shirt. "I'm so fucking sorry."

Harry studied Severus carefully as they stood in silence. He was silently pleading that the man might say something, anything. It felt like an eternity before Severus even moved, and when he did he looked Harry over once more and turned and walked straight towards the door without a word. Harry felt like someone had stabbed him deep in the gut and fell back onto the couch. He didn't cry or call after the man, he sat there and accepted the hand that the universe had deemed it necessary to deal him. Everything was ruined, he'd fucked it up. One date and he'd thrown away, the only proper relationship that'd he'd ever had. For what? A date with one of the most notorious gang leaders in Europe. Brilliant.

He pulled his legs to his chest and buried his face in his knees, willing this all to be a dream, that he'd wake up and he wouldn't have been so stupid. Maybe Draco was right, maybe he shouldn't have said anything, but no Severus deserved to know, even if nothing had happened.

The door creaked with someone opening it and his head immediately shot up to see Severus standing there with a solemn look on his face.

"I'd thought you had gone," Harry whispered.

"I'm not going anywhere," Severus said after a moment. "At least not unless you want me to."

"I thought you were leaving?" Harry asked confused.

"I had to get something," he answered. The man extended his arm and opened his palm to reveal Harry's ring. "I want to give it back."

"I don't deserve it," Harry all but protested.

"You don't have to wear it now," Severus said coming to sit next to him. "I want you to have it and when you're ready I want you to wear it again. You don't have to say anything, just wear it and I'll know."

Harry carefully too the ring and held it tightly in his own palm, studying Severus' face.

"You should I have left me. I saw someone else," he said quietly.

"It was a mistake and like you said nothing happened. I trust you, just don't let it happen again, okay?" Severus asked and Harry nodded. "You're too good for me, Harry. You're too good for anyone. You're kind and noble and loving, you're everything that anyone could ever hope to find."

"That's a lot of pressure," he said after a moment.

"It shouldn't be, because those things come to you naturally. Sure you're not perfect, but no one is, not really," Severus said taking his chin and gently pulling him up into a soft kiss.

He felt the relief flood through his body and the worry start to fade away. Then and there he knew that he needed to tell the man what they'd been up to. He would have to talk to the others, and ask their opinion on the matter, but he deserved to know. It didn't feel right sneaking behind the man's back any longer. If Severus didn't agree with how they had decided to handle it, then fine, he didn't have to be a part of it. But if he knew, then there wouldn't be any more sneaking behind the man's back. If they were meant to get through this together as a whole, then they had to be honest and work together. Things would surely go better if they were on the same page, and not plotting two separate plans against the same person. It was driving them apart in a sense and if that happened then she won anyway.

Harry pulling himself to his feet and padded into his bedroom and sat the ring on the night stand. It wasn't that he didn't want to wear it now, it just didn't feel right, not yet anyway. He turned to leave the room, but found Severus standing in the doorway.

"You really need to start taking better care of yourself. You've lost weight, and there are circles under you eyes," the man said knowingly.

"I was worried," Harry confessed.

"You worried yourself into a right state over nothing," Severus said coming to stand in front of him.

"Lucky me," Harry grinned playfully and Severus pulled him into a kiss.

Before he knew it his shirt was being pulled over his head and Severus' mouth had swooped down on his once more. All of the worry and heartache that had filled the past fews days poured into the kiss, it was a release.

Severus broke the kiss and looked at him, his dark eyes filled with desire. Harry looked at him questioningly, wondering why he had stopped.

"All my life I've spent trying to avoid this, what we have," Severus said after a moment. "The way that you make me feel is very unsettling to me. I've never had these feelings for another person. I've never allowed myself to have these feelings for another person, but then you walked into my life."

Before he could respond, Severus' mouth was on his again and he was being pushed back onto the bed. Severus planted soft kisses from the base of his ear to the corner of his mouth, before kissing his lips deeply. Severus then pulls his own shirt off over his his head and tosses it onto the floor and resumes his assault with his mouth. Trailing kisses from the base of his jaw all the way down to Harry's chest, causing Harry to arch up when his tongue made contact with his nipple and when he tugged on it Harry saw stars.

Severus was busy planting kisses all over his neck and chest, but when he straddled Harry he could feel just how hard the man was. Feeling his arousal, and his reaction to Harry made him retract any lingering feelings that the man might not want him anymore. It only drove his own arousal more and he didn't think he'd been this hard in his entire life.

He watched as Severus's slender fingers set to work on undoing the button on his jeans, and made quick work of sliding them and his pants down his legs and tossing them onto the floor. He nearly gasped when the man started to lick and kiss his way up his thighs. Severus pushed his thighs further apart and Harry let out a loud gasp when the man's tongue ran across his balls. Harry's hips bucked up off the bed when Severus took his hard cock into his warm, wet mouth. His skilled tongue making quick work of Harry's aroused state. He almost lost it more than once, but each time Severus would pull him back from the edge.

Finally, Severus climbed off of the bed and removed his own pants and underwear before climbing back on top of him. His figure looming over Harry and his body covering Harry's much smaller one. Harry ran his hands down the older man's taut back, and grasped his ass.

"I love you," the man whispered between the assault his lips were leaving on Harry's neck.

"I love you too," Harry gasped loudly as the man bit down.

Severus, jerked open the night stand drawer and Harry watched him fumble until he found what he was looking for: the bottle of lube. Severus sat back on his knees pushing Harry's legs even further apart, before beginning to work and stretch Harry in preparation. Harry withering and gasping at the older man's mercy and at the aptitude of his skilled hands and fingers. When he'd finished his preparation of Harry's tight ass, Severus coated his own rock, hard cock with a liberal amount of the lube and all Harry could do was watch in quiet anticipation. Finally, he felt the head at his entrance pressed forward telling the man to get on with it, he couldn't wait any longer.

He cried out as Severus entered him in one hard thrust, grasping the man's arms in pleasure. Severus continued in this manner, filling Harry with long, slow thrusts, causing him to cry out in pleasure. Harry could feel himself becoming lost in the pleasure and sensation that Severus was showering him in as the man began to thrust harder. With each thrust he could feel himself becoming more and more lost in the moment. How hard he was as he cock bobbed between the two of them and Severus' harsh, labored breathes as he continued to thrust into him.

When the man took hold of his cock and started to move in rhythm with his thrusts and Harry almost came right there. He bit down on his lip as Severus hit his prostate over and over and cried out the man's name.

"Severus," he breathed as the man's pace seemed to pick up.

"Come with me, Harry," Severus growled breathlessly into his ear.

The man continues his pace while working his cock and Harry could feel the orgasm building up inside of him and he came with a loud cry of pleasure into the man's hand. Severus' own orgasm followed soon after and he called out as he emptied himself inside of Harry, before collapsing on his chest breathlessly.

After a moment Severus rolled off of him and pulled him close to his chest. He placed a kiss on top of his head and sighed in content.

"I'm so glad you're home and that we're okay," Harry said after a moment.

"Shh...so am I," Severus said tiredly.

Harry really couldn't think of a better place to be than here in this moment in Severus' arms. Whoever said that you couldn't make homes out of human beings had clearly never met someone like Severus Snape he decided to himself.

**A/N: Sorry this took so long! I've been really busy lately, but everything should be back to normal now, and updates should come pretty regularly again. I hope the sex made up for it! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9**

**Disclaimer: You know the drill. **

"I have to tell Severus," Harry said as he sat beside Draco on the bench across from Rita Skeeter's office. The pair had been trailing her all morning, if you could call her sitting in her warm office and them freezing their bollocks off trailing her.

"What about Tom Riddle?" Draco asked, turning to look at him. 

"What about him?"

"Are you going to tell Uncle Sev that part as well?"

"Everything," he affirmed. "Hopefully he will be as forgiving as he was last night."

"Amazing," Draco said shaking his head in mock disgust. "So what if Uncle Sev wants you or all of us to stop what we're doing?"

Harry watched as Draco brushed a piece of lint from his trousers and answered after a moment with a very shaky: "I dunno."

"Brilliant," the blonde said shaking his head.

His morning conversation with Draco had sort of left him reeling on how he thought Severus might react to his date with Tom Riddle and that they'd all been going behind his back for weeks now. He'd asked the man to meet him at his flat, saying nothing more than that they needed to talk.

Nervous was an understatement when it came to describing how he felt about confessing his misdeeds to the man. As if going behind his back, because he thought the man's plan to fix things wasn't going to work, wasn't enough. He'd also gone on a date with none other than Tom Riddle. The same Tom Riddle that Severus had once sworn his allegiance to and the one who also happened to one of the most dangerous men in the world. Yeah, he'd really done it this time.

In an effort to pass the time, while suppressing the urge to just flee the country and say to hell with it, he needlessly tidied his already neat apartment. He was convinced that if he stayed busy then he wouldn't have to think about his confrontation with Severus, but much to his disappointment it was futile in the end. He nearly jumped out of his skin when the knock at the door came. He took a deep breath and went to open the door, to face the man and their future or lack of one together.

"What's wrong with you?" Severus asked as he immediately picked up pacing the small sitting room.

"The date I had was with Tom Riddle," he blurted out then stopped wide eyed to see how the man might react.

"What!?" Severus demanded.

"It was all an accident! Well meeting him was," he added quickly. "He hit on me first and then he just sort of showed up here and asked me out and it was too good an in to refuse."

"You knew who he was but you deliberately agreed to the outing? What could you possibly need an in with Tom Riddle for?"

"It was all a piece of a bigger plan that we put together."

"What plan? What are you talking about?" Severus' dark eyes narrowed at him.

"Well we've sort of been scheming behind your back," Harry said fumbling for the right words.

"We? We who?"

"Um...well...Draco, Ron, Hermione, Neville, and me. We've been working on a plan to take out Rita Skeeter.

Harry watched as Severus ripped his coat on and started to pace quickly back and forth. He was angry, but clearly attempting to suppress it as he searched for his next words. He had to admit the man sort of resembled a bat, the way his coat tails fluttered behind him and he had to suppress a grin.

"So you've gone behind my back and you didn't even respect me enough to tell me?" Severus hissed. "Did you not trust me?"

"Of course I did! I just didn't trust them!" Harry shot back. "Money can only get you so far Severus! What happens when the money runs out and one of them decided to dredge all of this back up? Are we supposed to just worry about that the rest of our lives and then just go and dole out their intended amount every time?"

"I was handling this and you went behind my back. You didn't even have it in you to tell me!"

He hated how he couldn't read the man's thought process. Severus never showed anything on his face that wasn't meant to be seen. He was so contained and all he could do was worry about what else was swimming underneath the man's anger. He'd known that Severus would be upset and maybe even hurt by all of this, but he wasn't sure how to make it okay or if he'd ever be able to. He'd done what he thought was best in the moment, this situation wasn't exactly ideal for either of them.

"This was so incredibly stupid of you!" He growled, his eyes blazing.

"I didn't know what else to do! You would have been quick to dismiss me!" He countered.

"How do you know? You could have told me! A relationship is a partnership!"

"Some partnership! You treat me like a child! Having some bloke follow me about, even when you promise not to! That's not how a partnership or a relationship works! You stop in whenever it's good for you and leave whether I want you to stay or not!"

Severus stopped and looked at him and all he could do was emit a deep sigh, and Harry wasn't sure if it was from anger, exasperation, or hurt. He had a feeling that it might have been a bit of all three, and he'd caused it. But he was hurt too, it felt like telling Severus had only made thing worse, but how good had they been since Rita had intervened. It was as if ever since she'd made him leave they'd both been living half a life and he found himself wondering if it was even worth it.

"What you did was so monumentally stupid!" Severus said picking back up.

"I told you! I didn't know what else to do!"

"You don't seem to have any regard for me or your own personal safety!"

Severus stopped and rubbed his face in exasperation, closing his eyes in frustration.

"I think we need to take a break. I think everything has changed and become blurred. I think it's best we don't see one another right now. We should go our separate ways and regroup, see if this is what we both still want."

"So you're leaving then? Harry asked half panicked. "I thought you said you'd wouldn't leave!"

"I can't be with someone who has no regard for their own safety," Severus said after a moment. "Someone who goes behind my back and shows me no trust. Someone who takes both of our futures into their own hands without even consulting me."

"What was I meant to do? Sit by and let things go to shit? What you were doing was never going to work!"

"How do you know?!" Severus shot back, anger glittering in his eyes.

"I just do! You know what? You should go! It's obvious that you want to! What's the point of putting all of this into something that was never going to work!?"

"What do you want from me? You're the one that felt the need to lie and go behind my back. You don't trust me, how am I supposed to trust you when you can't even afford me the same respect?!"

"I'm sorry!" He shouted at the man.

"For what?"

"What I said. What I did."

"I think it's best we separate and see how things go. See if at the end of it all we both still want the same things," Severus said shook his head.

"I don't think I can be everything you want me to be," he said quietly.

"All I'm asking is that you're honest with me, and that you trust me with things like this."

"Right now, I don't think I can be that."

"Right, I guess we know where we stand," Severus said and was out the door before Harry could say anything to stop him.

It had been three days since his row with Severus. Three days since he'd talked to or seen the man. Three days since he'd been to his flat.

After Severus had walked out after their argument he just couldn't stand to be there. His apartment felt incredibly empty, like the small amount of warmth that Severus had brought with him the night of their anniversary had been diminished. The place had never felt like home to him, but Severus had made it bearable to him, he'd breathed a new life into the place. Now the place felt almost as empty as he did. It was a terrible pit, a black hole, in the center of London, where his happiness came to die.

He'd left not long after Severus had. He'd packed a bag and walked to the nearest hotel and booked a room indefinitely. If he could have he might have burned his flat to the grown, if it had been a house he probably would have.

The final kick to the teeth came on the fourth day when he'd been sitting in a nearby Starbucks trying to study and Rita Skeeter had sat down in the chair across from him. She'd given him one of her sickeningly sweet smiles and quietly reapplied her lipstick.

"I know what you did, how you and those friends of yours broke into my office," she said looking up from the small compact in her hand.

"I haven't the foggiest," he said nonchalantly and closed his textbook.

"Don't play stupid with me," she smiled again. "I also know that you did a fine job of destroying your relationship with that beau of yours. You didn't think I wouldn't know about all of that would you? It was just so much sweeter watching you do it yourself. Well done, by the way."

"You're an evil bitch," Harry said balling his hands into fists under the table.

"And you're just a child that doesn't have a chance in the game he's decided to play," she hissed back at him.

"It's not over yet," he shot back.

"Oh, I'd say it's quite done. You singlehandedly destroyed the relationship you were so desperate to save," she said examining her freshly manicured nails.

He stared at her, trying his best to contain his tempter, anger seething from every pore of his body. She was going to pay, oh was he going to make her pay. Severus might not be at stake anymore, and that made it so much easier for him to want her out of the picture. She had tapped into a deep seeded anger and she didn't know what was he was going to do to her for it. He didn't even know what he was going to do, but whatever it was he'd make sure that it ruined her world, that she'd never be able to do this to another person.

"Be a dear and tell your little friends that they don't have to follow me about anymore, because I do believe this is checkmate," she said getting up and walking out.

He shoved his books into his bag and hurried out of the shop and onto the street. He all but ripped his cellphone out of his pocket to dial Draco's number.

"Harry?"

"If this bitch wants to play a game, let's show her a bit of opposition," he said hotly. "I want to ruin her life."

"Now that sounds like it," he could hear the grin in Draco's voice. "What's the plan?"

"I don't know yet, but oh the game is afoot, the game is definitely afoot," he said ending the call.

He quickly scrolled through the phonebook before coming to a stop at someone else's name. He hit the call button and waited for the person on the other end to answer.

"Hello, yes Tom, it's Harry. I was wondering if you might like to take me out?" He asked maybe a little too cheerfully.

**A/N: I hope you liked it! Thanks for reading and reviewing!**


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